WASHINGTON - The FBI has unlocked the phone of the terrorist responsible for the San Bernardino attacks without the help of Apple.

The Justice Department is expected to withdraw its legal action against apple.

A federal magistrate in California ordered the company in mid-February to assist the FBI in unlocking San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook's iPhone, which the company refused to do.

The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said the method to unlocking the phone was brought to the FBI earlier this month by an unidentified entity.

"It’s not about one phone. It’s very much about the future," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with Time last week. "You have a guy in Manhattan saying I’ve got a hundred and seventy-five phones that I want to take through this process. You’ve got other cases springing up all over the place where they want phones taken through the process. So it’s not about one phone, and they know it’s not about one phone."

The dispute between the FBI and Apple brought national attention to the murder of Brittney Mills in Baton Rouge in April 2015. She was shot and killed on the doorstep of her apartment, and nearly a year later, there are still no leads. District Attorney Hillar Moore believes they could identify a suspect if they could unlock Mills' phone. They believe her killer was someone she knew.